Scientist challenges dinosaur extinction theory

A scientist from Drumheller's Royal Tyrell Museum will be conducting research along the Red Deer River over the next few weeks looking for clues to what killed dinosaurs.

The theory up until now was that an asteroid wiped out the species. But David Eberth, a researcher specializing in sedimentary geology, says he has a new theory.

He says he has found evidence that cold temperatures may have actually weakened the species before the asteroid hit the earth.

Eberth says the asteroid just finished the job. He says he has found fossil evidence of cooling before an asteroid ever struck.

He says there's further evidence that shows a temperature drop serious enough to have made the dinosaurs vulnerable.

"It appears that this climatic cooling is making the environment from southern Alberta right up to the Nordic inhospitable for cold-blooded animals like crocodiles and turtles."

Eberth says that this cooling decreased the diversity of cold-blooded animals and likely made it harder for dinosaurs to survive. He also says that if this cooling hadn't happened, dinosaurs may have survived the massive asteroid strike 65-million-years ago.